November 23, 2008

final ride to grok e-dok area. started up along khlong 8 for a change, while the road was in good shape there was a bit too much traffic. the last bit of the ride into the grok e-dok waterfall area was quite nice. final km or so, passed several of what were probably game trails cutting across the road. at the stream saw plenty of birds, none of which i can identify ;-) talked to some folks at the entrance to the waterfall who said elephants some times come down to this area. i noticed a few larger animal droppings on the road which kind of looked like tiger scat as i rolled past but were more likely from farm dogs (tiger poop stinks to high heaven)--nonetheless got kind of spooked thinking about what might have been lurking in the jungle.

November 16, 2008

another nice ride up into the grok e-dok area--the more i ride up there, the more i like it. the rolling terrain is nice & the views are better than pretty good. pushed past the last ride by a km or so. no drama, no flats, etc. wind was a bit funky, swapped directions a couple of times during the ride.

had to cut the ride short, date with the mrs. as usual the forerunner ate the 1st 30km+.

November 4, 2008

nice long ride up into saraburi via ban na. first time up that way (jed khot nature center/grok e-dok waterfall). once up into this area the rolling terrain was very nice for riding, though the roads are a bit rough in some places (had to carry the bike over some dirt road for 50m & across a really messed up bridge). so watch out on some of the downhills. also stock up on water, once you make the turn into this area there's nothing there but a Royal Thai Forestry station (though they were pretty friendly when i went past). there are a few small shops in the village where you make the turn.

chunk of metal shredded my front tire on way to khlong 12 just past the lum lukka hospital (ultimately caused me to pussy out on the way into the grok-e-dok area, turned around a bit earlier than i had planned). it blew out so hard it showered me with water & mud, scared the bejeebers out of me. replaced the tube & kept going. the tire finally gave out about 20km from home (though it did eat thru all 3 of my spare tubes before giving up the ghost).

as usual the forerunner GPS swallowed the 1st 20km of ride--i guess i need to ride faster or get a better GPS (the forerunner has a limit of 3000 points & collects them every 9 seconds come hell or highwater).

in case you didn't know already, there's a bike shop in ban na (just to the left of the 33 & 3051 intersection as you come into town). its mainly a mountain bike shop but they have a few road bike tubes, etc. that might help in a pinch. nice folks.